I witnessed the person who had overwhelmed me being overwhelmed by someone else.
It was nothing like feeling vindicated. I never had any pent-up resentment or ill will toward the Imperial Princess to begin with. I had simply lost a sparring match against someone better.
Following the Imperial Princess, Revan's hatch opened. Revan, who had been staring intently at the sparring room, raised his head, waved his hand vigorously in my direction, then suddenly stuck his thumb up.
I don't want to react.
I reluctantly waved back, then only slightly turned my eyes to the side to look.
*Hiss*, if I talk to him right now, he might kill me.
Aaron was staring fixedly at the Imperial Princess with a stiff expression. No, maybe he wasn't looking at the Imperial Princess, but at Revan. Was he going to request another sparring match because he didn't like how this one went again?
Aaron walked toward the observation room door.
"Uh, where are you going?"
"To the Imperial Princess."
*Thud!*
The observation room door closed, and silence flowed. There were quite a few other cadets inside the observation room, yet it was the same. It seemed everyone was waiting for Aaron to distance himself.
Once his footsteps could no longer be heard, the other cadets immediately began to open their mouths.
"Is that kind of psychological warfare possible in actual combat against multiple enemies?"
"It's not a question of whether it's possible. The attempt itself is meaningful. Until now, I thought outstanding pilots were just ones with fast reaction speeds who could fight well."
"Search the catalog for the build the top cadet put together. He completely overwhelmed the Imperial Family's Titan to win. Just how outstanding is the Titan's base performance?"
Alex probably falls behind Kaiser.
"Alex falls behind Kaiser."
And by a considerable margin at that.
In the midst of the buzzing crowd, I rested my chin on my hand and stared intently at the screen. It was a fact I knew well enough even without looking at the catalog.
Not only were all the armaments Alex used outdated, but Alex's fighting style was—
"Fighting in a weakling's combat style, really cunningly."
"Yeah, that's the feeling I got too?"
I hadn't been able to see Revan fight at all during the last sparring match, but the moment I saw it this time, I understood.
Revan's Alex was classified as a heavy armor-type Titan, but in reality, it wasn't a heavy armor-type Titan. It didn't even possess outstanding defensive capabilities to begin with.
Nor was it particularly a high mobility-type, bombardment-type, or support-type.
There was no aspect where it boasted outstanding performance. Its mobility wasn't excellent, its firepower wasn't tremendous, and it didn't focus on sensor capabilities either.
There wasn't a single specialized trait.
"It has no weaknesses."
Setting aside performance that could seize an advantage, he instead chose a strategy to seize that advantage. He accumulated damage on the enemy step by step, creating a situation where defeat was impossible.
"It looks like he's waging war, not sparring."
Could he pull off that kind of psychological warfare in real combat against multiple enemies?
Quite the opposite. Utilizing that kind of psychological warfare in real combat against multiple enemies is even more terrifying.
"If there had been three Kaisers…."
"After calculating, hmm. Even if it were one against three, he could have won if he endured a certain amount of damage, right?"
As expected.
A versatile, all-purpose machine with excellent versatility is ultimately a machine that's so jack-of-all-trades that it can't do anything on its own. There are almost no cadets who recognize that from the start and actively utilize it.
If there are any, they're geniuses.
If I had recognized that and pushed toward the most extreme custom build, then Revan stood at the exact opposite. He pushed toward the most balanced custom build.
To the point that his obsession with balance and stability was rather extreme.
"You can see his personality."
"Personality?"
The Imperial Princess, with her straightforward personality, matched Kaiser, which was only capable of close combat; Revan, who possessed that level of skill yet still aimed for a Normal Ending he could completely control, matched Alex.
They were Titans perfectly suited to their respective pilots, without a doubt.
"Then why did Deep choose me?"
"I just wanted to ride you the moment I laid eyes on you."
"Total pervert."
"W-well, now that I think about it, Aily was the one who opened the hatch and got in."
"And that's why I'm teasing you?"
It was a pattern where answering would only give me a headache and invite more teasing.
Looking down at the sparring room, Aaron, who had gone down at some point, was pressing a handkerchief against the Imperial Princess's lips to staunch the bleeding.
Watching a grown man and woman in a situation where he was pressing on her lips to stop the bleeding, I didn't feel jealous or envious; it just looked good. At that level, I'd have to acknowledge his chivalry of pure love.
Anyway, as Revan said, it was good that I watched.
Perhaps he had intended for me to see how strongly and cunningly he fought. But what I actually saw was something entirely different.
Revan hadn't been sparring.
He had been doing a no-hit challenge.
Because he didn't see his opponent as a person to begin with.
"They said you came to this world several years before me."
"Huh?"
Revan still sees this world as a game.
It's probably possible because he possesses talent superior to mine.
"It's nothing. Shall we go?"
"Yeah! Are you done preparing for the written exams? Don't you have a lot of tests to take?"
"I'm fine."
I have a specialty I'm more confident in than Revan too.
"Because I memorized everything."
Spatial perception combined with speed reading is cheating.
If I could memorize entire books all day without sleeping.
For me, an unemployed deadbeat who used to pull all-nighters gaming, staying up all night is far too easy.
***
Morning 3km run.
20 minutes 59 seconds.
Watching my running record slowly decrease made me feel accomplished, yet at the same time, I felt that I still had a long way to go.
I had gained at least the minimum amount of muscle. Now, my body was at the level of a patient who ached all over. Before that, it had been a body so pathetic you could barely stand to look at.
I got up from the bus and stepped outside.
Today there were almost no gazes directed at me. Most were staring only at their smartwatches.
Friday morning had Professor Zeke's simulation sparring scheduled. This lecture, which most cadets waited for and looked forward to, started 10 minutes late today.
It wasn't because Professor Zeke was lazy. It was because no one could focus for about the first 10 minutes after the lecture started anyway.
It was the same even after entering the simulation room. Everyone was staring intently at their smartwatches. The only one looking at me was the Imperial Princess.
She immediately turned her head as if she weren't interested, though.
I also found a seat and turned on my smartwatch. When I looked ahead for a moment, Professor Zeke was resting his chin on his hand, slowly scanning the cadets.
I hadn't even noticed he was there. Is it because he's ex-military that he hides his presence so well?
*Beep.*
*Beeeeeeep.*
Notifications began ringing from here and there in an instant. Professor Zeke covered his ears tightly with an exhausted expression.
"Aily."
"I already turned it on!"
"Thank you."
Midterm exam rank announcement.
The moment the screen turned on, I scrolled all the way down, and suddenly the scrolling screen stopped.
"Deep! Why are you looking from the bottom? You should look from the top!"
"Huh?"
What do you mean why—no matter how much I thought about it, I figured around 100th place was the best I could do.
"I guess Revan's sparring match left quite an impression, but if you think about it, Deep also won without taking a single hit from the opponent?"
"Well."
She wasn't wrong, but.
There were 600 students in the first-year class, 200 of whom were pilots. What were the odds that my rank among them would be above 100th?
I remember my entrance exam rank being roughly around 170th. I could only hope that my rank had risen at least a little from that.
"Let's look from the top! Huh? From the top!"
"O-okay. Please stop moving the scroll. I'm getting dizzy."
I tapped with my finger and scrolled past them one by one from the top.
First place, Revan.
He had beaten the Imperial Princess, and come to think of it, he was someone who had played Episode 2. I figured he'd do well on the exams too. This was only natural.
Second place,
"Huh."
"Oh."
Aaron Dyke.
The moment I raised my head, my eyes met Aaron's. Aaron narrowed his eyes slightly, then looked straight toward the Imperial Princess.
Then his eyes met the Imperial Princess's, and he immediately bowed his head.
It was hard to imagine Aaron winning against the Imperial Princess in a sparring match. The fact that Aaron's rank was higher this time could probably be attributed simply to luck.
If the Imperial Princess had faced an opponent against whom her skills could actually work even a little, she couldn't have lost like that.
Anyway.
"Third place is the Imperial Princess, and I'll just skip past from 4th place onwards."
"Huh, aren't you going to look?"
"I don't know any of them anyway."
Huh.
Rhode was in the 20s. So Rhode was much higher ranked than I thought. I hadn't paid much attention, so I didn't know, but at this level, he must be quite a formidable talent.
I had known ever since he intercepted all of Zeus's shots, but seeing it through rankings felt completely different.
As I was scrolling down the screen, it suddenly stopped again.
"Aily?"
"Why are you scrolling past?"
"Huh? We're still in the 50s, though?"
"That's exactly it, Deep is right here?"
What?
I stopped my scrolling hand and stared intently at the hologram. 50, 51, 52, 51….
59th place. Deep.
I felt gazes on me in that instant.
I deliberately didn't raise my head. I had a strange certainty that if I raised my head, the gazes would multiply instead.
"Huh, it scrolls sideways?"
"Sideways?"
What else was it showing besides the ranks?
The moment I did and flipped it, several gazes instantly began piercing toward me.
With a frozen body, the moment I looked at the hologram screen, I realized belatedly.
117 rank increase.
Professor Zeke, who had been far away, burst out laughing. It was the first time I'd seen that man laugh.
The moment I saw his smiling face, I instinctively got chills. I only felt the urge to block the words coming out of that opening mouth.
It was absolutely impossible.
"This is the first time I've seen someone rise over 100 ranks, Cadet Deep."
In an instant, all gazes began piercing toward me.
Fuck.